Pity Earle McCurdy. The provincial New Democratic Party boss is rightly getting raked over the political coals for his Twitter comment that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “sent a rookie woman minister” to announce that the government had abandoned plans for changing the way Canadians go to the polls. The hyper-partisan
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The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Full of sound and fury #nlpoli
Pity Earle McCurdy. The provincial New Democratic Party boss is rightly getting raked over the political coals for his Twitter comment that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “sent a rookie woman minister” to announce that the government had abandoned plans for changing the way Canadians go to the polls. The hyper-partisan
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Politics as masturbation #nlpoli
“I am warning you. Don’t make me wear my pikachu costume.” Demonstrations at Memorial University and at Nalcor headquarters on Friday show the extent to which Newfoundland politics has become little more than irrelevant stunts staged chiefly for the personal amusement of the folks with the expensive cellphones. The protesters
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Canada’s Dippers: taking the democracy out of politics #nlpoli
The guy who didn’t know what electoral district he lived in likes proportional representation. Provincial Dipper boss Earle “More Austerity” McCurdy was so excited Wednesday that he talked to a parliamentary committee about it and even got all frothy about it on Twitter. If proportional representation is such a wonderful
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Downfall #nlpoli
On Day Two of the official provincial general election campaign, a new poll by a different polling method lines up with the Abacus Data poll. In both Abacus and Forum Research, results are shown for decideds and leanings. Forum goes farther than others, though, by showing demographic breakdowns of the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Setting fire to your own ass is never a good idea #nlpoli
While Paul Davis and the Conservatives were launching their official election campaign, Ryan Cleary turned up in a recorded interview on NTV to talk about the controversy he embodies. The single biggest thing Cleary did was confirm that his answer to David Cochrane last week was a lie. Did you
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Blue balls #nlpoli
Ryan Cleary didn’t become the punchline to any New Yorker cartoon at 3:00 PM last Friday afternoon. Peg Norman and other local New Democrats may want to believe he did. But he didn’t.’t Norman laced into Cleary on Facebook Friday afternoon, calling Cleary’s decision to join the Tories “an indictment
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Chainsaw Earle keeps austerity on the table #nlpoli
NDP leader Earle McCurdy called the province’s major open line show on Thursday and by the sounds of things he hasn’t backed off the position that the size of the government’s financial problems will mean more cuts. Sure he said he was opposed to austerity, but what Earle did say
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: NL NDP boss admits deeper “austerity” on the table as gov cash situation worsens #nlpoli
“All options are going to have to be considered I guess, from both the revenue and the expenditure side, to make the best of a challenging situation,” NDP leader Earle McCurdy told CBC on Wednesday. “All options” includes more job cuts, spending reductions, and public sector layoffs in addition to
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Grecian Formula and mineral rights #nlpoli
In the late 1990s, the provincial government faced some tough financial times. The debt and the size of the economy were the same number. The government went through the usual rounds of layoffs and cuts, and the sorts of things they needed to keep the budget under control. One of
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: It was Greek to me #nlpoli
After days of intense talks, the Europeans apparently have finally reached a final deal to help Greece out of its latest financial misery. Greece is broke. With a gross domestic product of about US$238 billion, the country had a government debt of about US$346 billion. Some of the country’s banks
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: What district is Earle in, again? #nlpoli
Since the bill to change provincial districts cleared the House last week, the provincial New Democrats have been tweeting sanctimoniously about the harm done to rural districts by the bill. All those rural seats lost, they wail. All very undemocratic, they cry. And all very much a load of shit,
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A lot can change in three months #nlpoli
The Liberals and the Conservatives dropped in the most recent Corporate Research Associates poll and all that vote went to the New Democrats. Let’s look at the party choice numbers without the skew of looking only at decideds. Here’s a chart showing the CRA results since the last general election,
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Contending Political Strategies #nlpoli
Starting last Friday, the ironically-named Conservatives currently running the place started holding a series of “pre-budget” announcements. They started with news that to deal with the massive financial crisis they would be dumping 77 and a half teaching positions in the provincial school system. About twice that many would retire,
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Gimme that Old-Time Reaction #nlpoli
The only news to come out of the New Democratic Party convention this past weekend is that the party now has not one but two leaders. Earle won’t be looking for a seat in the House before the next election. As a result, Lorraine Michael remains the leader of the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Protesting too much? #nlpoli
FFAW boss Earle McCurdy responded on Friday to comments by OCI’s Martin Sullivan that the FFAW, among other things, had threatened to shut OCI down and had proposed closing the Fortune plant in exchange for trying to get some provincial government money to help OCI refurbish the Marystown plant. Here
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